Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Latest Bubble? Recovery

Wow, they are selling this thing hard.

I think the only thing I've seen sold harder than the current "recovery" was the recovery back in Aug 2006. Then the Jan 2007 recovery... and that July's recovery... then the Winter Recovery of 2007... and into Summer 2008's recovery.

Yes, the only "recovery" that hasn't been sold is the FALL of 2008 through Spring of this year. That's because only small-potatoes morons like John Costa were still peddling that shit.

Now, I'll admit right now (like I did last week), that some, including me, are experiencing something of a "recovery".

I am "asset poor". I don't own a house, and I have 2 would-be Cash-4-Crunchers. I have been saving my pennies, and threw all in late last year... and suffered the worst market losses of my life. Until just recently.

But that sort of "financial profile" I'll bet, is pretty rare. Most people have a big chunk of their assets in their house. For 75-80% of all people this will always be true. This "current history" is the only time in my adult life that hasn't been true for me.

So most people that are represented at all in financial society have their assets tied up in a home. Almost always with the attendant debt. And that asset value has been crushed by trillions of dollars. We are probably only about 55-60% through this thing... for Bend, far less. RE Bubbles NEVER end this fast, and the "recovery" is typically measured in decades... for Japs & Texas oil it's still 2 decades and waiting.

So the primary "net-worth" engine in this country, having gone strong for 100 years, is broken. TRILLIONS are gone, and won't be coming back anytime soon.

So "what" is this recovery we're being sold? Well, it's primarily a Pollyanna, The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow scenario. And the media is pointing primarily to the stock market as proof.

But I've said over and over that the stock market didn't even see the enormity of the housing bubble, The Greatest Financial Bubble The World Has Ever Seen... and stock market types did not see it. They were too far IN it. They thought what was happening was fine, and would go on forever.

I started this blog in Dec 2006, and it was 11 months later until stocks peaked.

And I can tell you, preaching about The End Is Nigh is pretty damn tough, as the wealth tidal wave grows higher & higher. There seemed to be indications aplenty that things were not going well... but The Canary In The Coal Mine, stocks, were just fine.

So stocks are currently the primary divining rod for recovery prognosticators now. And they have done well. Quite well, having one of the greatest 6 month runs of all time. From about 6,500 to 9,500, or 46%. That's pretty amazing. That's the sort of gain that usually takes years.

So stocks are pointing the way, right. And that "way" is up... right?

Well, look at the curious phenomenon of Freddie, Fannie, and AIG.

AIG's current valuation is $6.76BB. Fannie & Freddie are worth $2.27BB and $1.56BB respectively
AIG 1 year
AIG, 1 month
FNM, 1 month
FRE, 1 month
These companies were actually the butt of some pretty sarcastic criticism in the Bully, no less, regarding their recent advance, several hundred percent in all 3 cases.

But folks, again the market has it wrong.

These companies own Unkki Sam HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS. They aren't just worth ZERO, they are in the red TENS OF BILLIONS.

But the market has caught some sort of Dengue Fever, and thinks that it can bring these financial zombies back to life. It has slapped a collective $10BB price tag on these corpses. Rest assured, they are dead. They are worth nothing.

So again, there is a Huge Gulf between what the market expects, and what is seemingly a blatant reality. Could there be the Worlds Largest Debt Forgiveness package coming? Maybe. But even then, the outrage seems like it would dictate a complete wipeout of equity holders.

As I said, this thing is 55-60% done; and that's time elapsed until we hit bottom. For Bend, add on the customary 2-3 years to that. This isn't done. On a opp-cost basis, we will eclipse the March lows.

More proof that the recovery is a sham? There's plenty.

Local unemployment came out last Tuesday at 15.3% (adjusted, 13.9% unadjusted) for Deschutes County. Again, the 13.9% is more salient, cuz you can't buy shit at Safeway with "adjustments".

To give you sense of this series, the July UE rates for Deschutes from 2006 to date, has been: 4.3%, 4.5%, 6.8%, 13.9%.

Do you see the recovery there? I do not.

No, I see Cessna closing.

I see Epic closing, shafting everyone in sight, and Schramek looting the company coffers and heading to Bermuda.

I see (from today's Bully):

New building permits continue to fall to such low levels that they are close to zero, from a seasonal-adjustment standpoint, Duy said. He credited the drop in permits to the region’s excessive housing inventory, both from overbuilding and from a steady stream of distressed properties entering the market.

Bend is for all intents and purposes, DEAD. We are an ecoinomic ZOMBIE. Accordingly, I take issue with Bubble-Head Duy:

“The good news is (building permits) are so close to zero there’s nowhere to go but up,” Duy said.

No, actually there is a FAR MORE LIKELY direction that ZOMBIE'S take: SIDEWAYS. Says Duy:

“Building permits followed a very nice pattern each year for years — around 175 homes a month — and it was only in the last few years as the bubble accelerated that (the region) had this weird situation where (it was) permitting 300, 400, 500 homes per month.”

Funny how this guy describes the WHITE HOT CENTER of the Worlds Largest Housing Bubble, Bend OR, as a "weird situation".

Bend Oregon is a fairly unique confluence of startlingly rare financial miracles that culminated in one of the greatest concentrations of fleeting wealth this country will ever know.

Yeah, it's "weird". But what will eclipse it in weirdness, has yet to come.

We will find out just how deeply it has been penetrated by the Tami Sawyers, Rick Schrameks, the Summit 1031ers, and all the other grifters that represent probably half this towns economy.

So we are to believe that a UE rate that's gone parabolic is "leveling-out". "Recovery right around the corner", and all that. Hmf.

In Thursay's Bully, Costa again displays a near catatonic penchant for Broken Clock-itis.

Both office & industrial vacancy rates in Bend have exploded higher, from 7% and 3.6% respectively at their nadir, to 19.1% and 17.4%.

Oh yes, thar be recovery there maties!

WTF! This piece had nothing but "RECOVERY IS IMMINENT" statements from start to finish. Have these fucking experts been over on Colorado recently? That fucking place is a ghost town.

Ironically, there is a huge piece just below it, "THE HOUSING INDUSTRY: SIGNS OF LIFE", and a huge pic of Vegas.

No, commercial is NOT where "The Elusive Recovery" is happening. In fact, it is the next shoe to drop. Commercial vacancies will go to 30% in Bend, mark my words.

Where next for this Fabled Recovery Fraud?

Oh, right, right, right, right, right... how could I forget the Biggest Mega Fraud In Town?

Cascade Bancorp.

We already had Priney Bank go down hard, and believe me folks, this shit comes in 3's. Past will be prescient, and you will see our dearest beloved CACB Fraud-U-Net Financial House of Cards go down.

CACB is headed for the financial dustbin of history, and skank-ass-butt-motherfucking ugly Patty "Beat With An Ugly Club" Moss has told us all as much, with her now weekly PLEADING FOR NICKELS segment in the Bully.

But the bigger issue is little killer bee stings like CACB taking down FDIC, which is all but inevitable at this point.

OK, so Unkki Sam will step in before this happens, but Nigga Pleeze, how the fuck many times can this happen before some major shit hits the fan?

All this leads to the Point About No Recovery Is Possible Because Our Debts Will 100% Wipe Out The Net Worth Of This Country.

In 10 years, the Obama-Jeebus tells us that we will owe something like $400K PER MAN, WOMAN, and CHILD in government debt. That's just GOVERNMENT DEBT. You will still owe on that fucking $400K mortgage for your $150K STD shitshack.

THAT is death. THAT is the End. We cannot, as a nation pay that off. No way.

We are riding a short, pleasant, but 100% unsustainable Bloody Mary recovery. At some point, we will all wake up to this 100% INEVITABLE FACT. We have, are, and will continue to BAIL OUT EVERYTHING.... but funny, it's still just us.

The Feds are us. We are AIG. We are all in this together, and pushing the burden from person to person, company to company, and quasi government institution to quasi govt institution does NOT get rid of it. The burden has just been moved, NOT destroyed.

As I've said here several times, what is happening is the greatest transfer of Wealth the World has ever known. The receivers are The Guilty, the perpetrators of the Greatest Fraud Ever Conceived. The Victims, are us, US taxpayers, a flock of sheep getting sheared and ready for the slaughter.

Your current debt load for this thing is near $100K, but it's about to EXPLODE HIGHER. Soon, we will all owe more than we can make in a lifetime.

So I say, take this recovery for what it is: A chance to sell, and cut your losses. I am.
hbm, can you help me get these pesky shorts off?
Dang!
Good things cum in 3's!

155 comments:

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

It's really pretty comical how ridiculous the Bully's beating of the Recovery Drum has become.

Signs of stability amid another decline
Building permits ‘are so close to zero there’s nowhere to go but up’

Seriously?

"Signs of Recovery Despite The Fact There Is Nothing But Further Declines AND Absolutely NO SIGN Of Recovery?" would be more like it.

Folks, 30% of all homeowners will be underwater (NEG EQUITY) by the end of the year, 50% in 2 years. Throw in your share of gevernment debt, and well over 50% of AmeriKKKans are NEG NET WORTH now, up to 90% in 3-5 years.

There is NO RECOVERY, not now, not in 5 years. Sell your shit, raise cash & hunker down. The other shoe is going to drop...

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

But you can bet your fucking ass that COSTA will be calling The Bottom The Whole Time, until the Bully closes down.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Dunc has a good piece, Reality Takes Hold

Which explains why we are being SOLD this recovery. They think that if we FEEL BETTER, we'll crack open our wallets FULL OF CASH, and start spending again.

WRONG. The wallets are empty. Beating the same drum we have for the past 3 decades during times of slowdown, will not work this time.

We're NOT cautious, WE'RE BROKE.

Cautious has life, cautious can be WOKE UP. Broke can't do shit. And we are BROKE.

Anonymous said...

Good things come in threes?

Idiots also come in threes:
hbm, dunc and the pussy.

Duncan McGeary said...

Trying to derail this thread early?

Anonymous said...

Nope.

Just stating the obvious.

But I have no fear, either you, the pussy or hbm will derail this thread soon enuf. Soon enough!

Duncan McGeary said...

So what do think of what Paul-doh said?

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Meltdown 101: Why banks' struggles have worsened

By MARCY GORDON (AP) – 1 day ago

WASHINGTON — Despite signs of an improving economy, the nation's banks are still struggling — in fact, the pace of bank failures has accelerated.

What would it take to turn the banking sector around? And what can people do to protect their savings in the meantime?

Here are some questions and answers about the wave of U.S. bank failures, as the latest quarterly snapshot of the industry painted a grim picture.

Q: How bad is this wave of failures?

A: A cascade of collapses began last year as the financial crisis struck.

Eighty-four banks have fallen so far this year as tumbling home prices and spiking unemployment pushed loan defaults upward. That's the largest number in a year since the early 1990s, at the apex of the savings and loan crisis. It compares with 25 bank failures last year and three in 2007.

The failures have sapped billions from the federal deposit insurance fund, which guarantees account holders' money when banks go under. The fund stood at $10.4 billion in the second quarter, its lowest point since 1992.

The biggest failure this year: Colonial Bank, a heavy regional lender in real estate development based in Montgomery, Ala., which became the sixth-largest bank failure in U.S. history on Aug. 14. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized Colonial and sold its $20 billion in deposits, 346 branches in five states and about $22 billion of its assets to BB&T Corp.

Some analysts believe another 100 to 300 banks could fail before the crisis runs its course, largely because of souring loans for commercial real estate. The number of institutions on the FDIC's internal "problem list" — those rated by examiners as having very low capital cushions against risk and other deficiencies — jumped to 416 at the end of June from 305 in the first quarter, the agency reported Thursday.

Q: What's behind this?

A: Banks around the country have run into trouble on their loans for construction and development, the fastest-growing category of troubled loans for U.S. banks, especially in overbuilt areas. Many companies have shut down in the recession, vacating shopping malls and office buildings financed by the loans.

Lots of banks have heavy concentrations of these loans in their lending portfolios, and some small banks are considered by regulators to be particularly vulnerable. Delinquent loan payments and defaults by commercial and residential developers have surged to the highest levels since the early 1990s, during the S&L crisis.

At the same time, some recent failures have been smaller banks brought down by garden-variety loans that have soured during the recession. Regulators say they're concerned about growing delinquencies on prime, conventional home loans.

Q: So even though the economy is starting to recover, banks are still struggling?

A: The condition of the banking industry is what economists call a lagging indicator: It falls behind the state of the economy because the problems take longer to percolate through banks, as opposed to other signposts such as consumer spending, gross domestic product or permits for building construction.

That means the pain will continue to weigh on the banking sector while the economy rebounds.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

CONT:

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair offered a reminder on Thursday: "Banking industry performance is, as always, a lagging indicator."

Q: What will it take to turn the banking industry around?

A: Not much other than time, experts say.

"The only thing you could do is ... to ignore the losses that are already there," said Karen Shaw Petrou, managing partner of Federal Financial Analytics in Washington. That would be a terrible mistake, she said, noting that regulators' blind eye in the 1980s prolonged the S&L crisis.

"The best thing for the banking industry is just to take it on the chin and move on," she said.

Q: What about me? What can I do to protect my money in the bank?

A: Accounts are insured by the FDIC up to $250,000 per depositor per bank. Joint accounts are insured up to that amount for each co-owner of the account; individual retirement accounts, or IRAs, held in banks are also insured.

If you have multiple individual accounts at one bank, it's important to structure them carefully so they don't exceed the limits. The FDIC has a calculator on its Web site called the electronic deposit insurance estimator, or EDIE, that can help determine how much money in deposit accounts, if any, exceeds the insurance limits. You can find it here: http://tinyurl.com/lt3aok.

For any money in a failed bank's deposit accounts that exceeds the insured limits, you become essentially a creditor of the bank. You would eventually recover some of your money, but the amount can range from 40 cents on the dollar up to the full amount. Recovery of the money could take months.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Time to Read the Riot Act to AIG

It’s time for someone in the Obama administration to read the riot act to Robert Benmosche, American International Group’s (AIG) new $7 million chief executive.

Since getting the job, Benmosche has spent more time at his lavish Croatian villa on the Adriatic coast than at the troubled insurer’s corporate offices in New York.

And in the short term, Benmosche’s vacation strategy appears to be paying dividends.

This week, AIG’s shares surged 44 percent, to nearly $50, after Benmosche said that he intended to move slower than his predecessor in selling off AIG’s still viable divisions.

Maybe Benmosche should consider relocating AIG’s headquarters to Dubrovnik.

But the big run-up in AIG shares is merely a sideshow for momentum players, speculators and Hank Greenberg, the former AIG chieftain who controls about 11 percent of the company’s outstanding shares.

The reality is that AIG exists today only because of the $180 billion lifeline the insurer has received from the federal government. Even Benmosche acknowledges that, telling The Wall Street Journal: “If the U.S. government doesn’t continue to support AIG, we will fail.”

The trouble is that the government continues to act as if its support of AIG is unconditional, which is why Benmosche can feel free to set his own leisurely timetable for selling AIG’s assets. The former MetLife chief executive knows no one from the government is about to tell him what to do, even though American taxpayers effectively own 80 percent of the company.

But Treasury and the Federal Reserve need to be taking their cue from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp in how to handle AIG.

Behind the scenes, Sheila Bair, the FDIC chairman, has been exerting a lot of pressure on her agency’s biggest ward–Citigroup (C)–to make changes to its management and business strategies. Treasury and the Fed should do much the same with AIG.

There’s no reason for the federal government to be acting as a mere bystander in all this. After all, the government bailed out AIG chiefly to prevent a run on U.S. and European banks that had purchased hundreds of billions of dollars in guarantees on risky securities. In those scary days immediately following Lehman Brothers’ collapse, AIG was too big to fail.

But nearly a year later, that is no longer the case. If AIG were to fail now it would be painful but more manageable because of the steps the Fed has taken either to guarantee or remove the most troubling assets from its balance sheet.

Yet the government’s kowtowing to AIG leaves some scratching their heads.

“The controlling party here should be the government,” says Brad Golding, a hedge fund manager with Christofferson, Robb & Co, who frequently shorts financial stocks, including shares of AIG in the past. “When he was made CEO, (government officials) should have called him and said: ‘You are occupying this role at our whim.’”

There’s talk about the Obama administration using the one-year anniversary of the demise of Lehman Brothers to give new life to its flagging financial regulatory reform package.

That’s a fine idea and one that’s no doubt necessary in light of the way many on Wall Street are returning to business as usual.

But here’s something else Team Obama should do: Use the anniversary of the AIG bailout to set a hard-and-fast deadline for dismantling the insurer and getting the taxpayers’ money back.

Duncan McGeary said...

H.Bruce, give me a call. About those english guys.

Dunc

Anonymous said...

Building permits have fallen to zero. In private industry, that would mean layoffs, since there is no work to do.
In the City of Bend, it means the permit office is staffed by
2 administrative assistants-
2 people to issue permits-
3 inspectors-
an assistant supervisor-
and a dept. manager.
Annual cost around $400,000.

Anyone know of a more useless waste of govt. dollars in the middle of a recession??

Bewert said...

Re:
Anyone know of a more useless waste of govt. dollars in the middle of a recession??

####

My last straw:

Facing huge cutbacks, Council approves $687K building standards update

There are posts about this just before and after this one as well.

At this point it was clear that the new council had little interest in the overall community. So we started planning on moving.

####

BTW 60 Minutes tonight has a nice piece on credit default swaps.

tim said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125167422962070925.html

Deutsche Bank estimates 2/3 of commercial mortgage-backed securities will have trouble getting refinanced.

Anonymous said...

IHTBYB,
Perhaps you error on the side of being TOO negative ... you are a "worse case scenario" type of guy. Now the following article is not a repudiation of your arguments, but you must admit it is a little positive news regarding the banks and the bank bailout:



August 31, 2009

As Big Banks Repay Bailout Money, U.S. Sees a Profit


By ZACHERY KOUWE

Nearly a year after the federal rescue of the nation’s biggest banks, taxpayers have begun seeing profits from the hundreds of billions of dollars in aid that many critics thought might never be seen again.

The profits, collected from eight of the biggest banks that have fully repaid their obligations to the government, come to about $4 billion, or the equivalent of about 15 percent annually, according to calculations compiled for The New York Times.

These early returns are by no means a full accounting of the huge financial rescue undertaken by the federal government last year to stabilize teetering banks and other companies.

The government still faces potentially huge long-term losses from its bailouts of the insurance giant American International Group, the mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the automakers General Motors and Chrysler. The Treasury Department could also take a hit from its guarantees on billions of dollars of toxic mortgages.

But the mere hint of bailout profits for the nearly year-old Troubled Asset Relief Program has been received as a welcome surprise. It has also spurred hopes that the government could soon get out of the banking business.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/business/economy/31taxpayer.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

Anonymous said...

Banks are sitting on a shitfull of foreclosures. The banks are like the roach motel...foreclosures check in but they don't check out.

Anonymous said...

Marge or anyone else, any August sales and median price stats?

Anonymous said...

aww, who's trying to write off their hobby as a business expense?

http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090831/NEWS0107/908310371/1041&nav_category=

The only software company in the world where the owner will actually fly to your location and troubleshoot the software. I'm sure that every flight to the Bahamas requires at least one stop for tech support.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

you must admit it is a little positive news regarding the banks and the bank bailout...

Oh, I'll admit there are a precious few that are not just doing well, but are thriving on this carnage, Morgan & Goldman come to mind.

But have no illusions, the collapse in prices of the banking systems largest assets, commercial & residential mortgages, is not going to be good for banks.

Foreclosures from all corners, will keep on coming...

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

The only software company in the world where the owner will actually fly to your location and troubleshoot the software.

Yeah, I thought the same thing... twin-prop plane in the background for a little "software" company? Uhhh, no.

Plus I like how all of a sudden he's going into the "aviation" business. Tax evasion boondoggle.

But I salute him.... small business is the best tax dodge ever invented.

Anonymous said...

Small business can write off
Business dinners
Business autos
Business travel
Salaries paid to their children
Retirement accounts
Boats used for business entertainment

A well run small business has the ability to reduce taxable income, in order to drop into a lower tax bracket. Individuals do not.

Anonymous said...

The more important question is, why the fuck does the county care what business goes in at the airport, as long as it's legal? Airport land is industrial land, and if some schuck want to sell software there, who gives a shit? Especially in this economy, I hope he sells a boat load of it. And hires a lot of people to help him polish up his plane.

Anonymous said...

For good info. on how the banks are sitting on shadow inventory, see:
www.doctorhousingbubble.com

Anonymous said...

But I salute him.... small business is the best tax dodge ever invented.

indeed, more power to him if he can work it out.

Nothing illegal about it as long as his travels involve some sort of business...a meeting with a potential client is all it takes to make a trip to Fiji legit.

I wanted to write off a snowboard as an "emergency escape vehicle" from our fleet of cars but my CPA wasn't having it.

Bewert said...

It's amazing they want to kick out someone who employs 21 people after losing Cessna and Epic. Better to have empty space, I guess.

####

Re: hobby?

You've obviously never owned and ran your own business. Anything with that many employees is no fucking hobby.

####

Yes, small businesses can write off a lot of stuff, just as large businesses can. They also have to jump through a lot more hoops than W2 filers do. And it depends on whether you organize as a LLC or partnership, a S corp, or a C corp.

Thousands of people write of business aircraft. Who the hell do you think buys the small high performance planes that Columbia/Cessna builds.

As for flying onsite to install or support software systems--I've personally been as far as Munich and Toronto. You just charge them. Any technical system requires support and training, especially at first installation.

This is the type of growing small business you guys need out there:
http://www.paladinpos.com/index.php?m=1

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Thousands of people write of business aircraft.

But I know very few 20 person companies that can truly justify a twin-prop plane... especially for software support.

It's a tax dodge... but I hold nothing against the guy for it. I'd do the same in his shoes, if I had a penchant for flying my own plane.

I'll bet one thing: That plane gets that guy damn close to a zero net each year.

Bewert said...

Probably less than zero net.

Most small private planes are tax-enabled, or else people wouldn't be able to afford them. It is a hell of a lot more convenient, at a far higher cost. If your profits can support it, than you have the choice.

Personally, I've been looking into a Dodge Sprinter-based RV for location filming support.

Bewert said...

Via one of those liberal commie orgs:

We have just a few days before Congress returns to Washington for important votes on health care reform.

Can you make your voice heard at an event with Senator Jeff Merkley in Bend tomorrow at 7 p.m.?

Right-wing extremists tried to dominate the national debate this month. But MoveOn members are helping to turn the tide to support President Obama's plans for change.

This is the critical moment to stand up for health care reform. Help let Sen. Merkley know that we're counting on him to pass health care reform with a real public health insurance option.

The event location in Bend is: Summit High School, Gymnasium, Tuesday at 7 p.m.

####

Interesting WaPo article from someone who has actual experience with health care in other countries as well as the US:

5 Myths About Health Care Around the World

tim said...

Is Merkley's vote even in doubt?

Anonymous said...

I only have one question for Merkley...If this health care reform is so great, will he be the first one in line, with his kids and parents in tow,to sign-up regardless of what his "government" benefits are? I think I know the answer...

Anonymous said...

Anyone know the status of Side Effect on Century Drive?

That was the snowboard shop on the west side of the street. Drove by yesterday and the place is empty. Maybe they moved?...maybe they're toast?

Bewert said...

Merkley's a lock, Wyden is on the fence with his own health care bill, sponsored with my troglodyte Senator Bob Bennett. Bennett ha rather interesting history, especially if you have a propensity towards tinfoil: http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/bennett.htm

Wyden's Healthy Americans Act is most of the way there, only missing a federal plan to provide some real competition to private for-profits. It is an individual mandate to purchase private health insurance, with not much for cost controls.

Here is an interesting article on it from the PNHP: http://tinyurl.com/ngymxt

Note the comments about the Senators stating that "garnishment" to cover the mandate is bad, and that it would be better to just use paycheck withholding for funding in that coverage of a townhall by Wyden and Bennett explaining it.

Wydens page on the plan: http://wyden.senate.gov/issues/Legislation/Healthy_Americans_Act.cfm

Note that on the right there are links to Lewin Group reports on why this is so good. Of course, the Lewin Group is owned by UnitedHealth Group.

Anonymous said...

Bank of the Cascades gets a C&D order from FDIC. Let the capital-raising (razing?) begin!


http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2009/08/31/daily10.html

Anonymous said...

I don't get it. What are they supposed to cease doing?

Anonymous said...

I don't get it. What are they supposed to cease doing?

******

Cease acting like fucking morons.

Bewert said...

Cascade Bancorp received a a cease and desist order from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Oregon Division of Finance and Corporate Securities and has agreed to take certain measures to strengthen the Bank of the Cascades’ financial condition and operations.

The agreement identified items in a routine regulatory exam completed in February. Patricia L. Moss, president and CEO of Bend-based Cascade (NASDAQ: CACB), said that the issues identified in the regulatory order largely reflect actions already well under way by the board of directors and management.

Under the agreement, the bank agreed to certain measures to improve its capital position, maintain liquidity ratios, reduce its level of non-performing assets, and reduce its loan concentrations in certain portfolios. It also agreed to improve management practices and to assure that its allowance for loan losses is maintained at an appropriate level. In consenting to the order, the bank did not concede the findings or admit to any of the assertions but agreed to adopt and implement a corrective program to address certain deficiencies.

Among the corrective actions required are for the bank to maintain above-normal capital levels. The FDIC usually requires that a bank maintain a Tier 1 leverage ratio of 5 percent in order to be considered “well-capitalized.” However, regulators are requiring the bank to maintain a Tier 1 leverage ratio of at least 10 percent beginning 150 days from the issuance of the order.

The bank must also develop and adopt a plan to maintain the minimum risk-based capital requirements for a “well-capitalized” bank, including a total risk-based capital ratio of at least 10 percent. At June 30, the Bank’s Tier 1 leverage ratio was 6.5 percent and its total risk-based capital ratio was 8.9 percent.

The Bank is also required to ensure the level of the allowance for loan and lease losses is maintained at appropriate levels to safeguard the book value of the bank’s loans and leases, and to reduce the amount of non-performing loans.

The order further requires the bank to develop a plan to reduce delinquent loans and a plan to reduce loans to borrowers in the commercial real estate sector. The order also requires development of a written three-year strategic plan and a plan to preserve liquidity. The regulators have stipulated a primary liquidity ratio of at least 15 percent. At June 30, the bank had a primary liquidity ratio of 18.54 percent.

Cascade Bancorp operates in Oregon and Idaho markets.

####

Playing a bit too loose for the regulators.

Anonymous said...

I wish like hell that Jewart would cease typing on his keyboard and desist spewing his bullshit. Fly fly, Jewart, fly fly...

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Bruce, for posting that. Pay no attention to your detractor.

By the way, Buster should be back about now . . .


BUSTER?!

B U S T E R ! !

Anonymous said...

Bruce bugs but referring to anyone as Jewart lacks class.

Anonymous said...

Didn't Tuscany Pines cut down a bunch of trees that they weren't supposed to cut down?...paid a fine I think?

I know that kook on Reed Market cut down a bunch of old ponderosa trees and Trono knocked down the crane shed in the middle of the night to avoid dealing with the cost of properly taking the building down.

I the last two cases, it was cheaper to pay the fine than it was to do the right thing.

I don't believe in Karma but...

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

That warning from the FDIC to Moss is basically telling her to QUIT LYING (under reserving).

It's also a shot across the bow that says "WE'RE COMING".

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Only 3 Cent OR banks got that Feb warning... 1 is already gone.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

CACB short term charts are starting to have that weird, "trade by appointment" look of a thinly traded penny stock...

Oh.... right.

Anonymous said...

CACB is ordered to cease and desist operating without enough capital.
They need to raise more capital, by increasing deposits, disposing of property/bad loans, seeking investors, or some combination of those items.

Anonymous said...

"They need to raise more capital, by increasing deposits, disposing of property/bad loans, seeking investors, or some combination of those items."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that doesn't sound easy. Who would want to come along and bail them out? I'm assuming any investment would be at a bargain price, no?

Anonymous said...

Buster is now living in SLC, and unlike BP, Buster has no vested interest in Bend.

Anonymous said...

FDIC: "Cease & Desist, ... ergo go sell you bad debt"

Hello, this is like saying, "Sell off your bad Bend assets pronto", ...

Boyz, expect a fire sale, and quickly. Good time to go to CACB and ask to see their shopping list of STD's they MUST dump. Best time to BUY and STD in 20 years. NOT!

I love this FDCI say's ramp-up your CASH, yeh right! Then they say sell off your non-performing.

Do you realize what FDIC is saying here? They're saying, "QUIT COOKING THE FUCKING BOOKS".

CACB keeps all this STD shit they put real money into on the books as full value asset. FDIC is saying SELL the shit, do you folks have any idea of what the truth will to do COMPANY-MOSS??

"CEASE & DESIST the GOD damn fucking lying", ...

Who the fuck is going to buy a Bend non-performing loan?? What is that shit worth? Hell its all under water by 80%. In a real world these loans would have gotten called 3-4 years ago.

Bend is FUCKED, but is this news?

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

A little Coming To Jesus moment for AIG, FNM, and FRE... down 20-30% in the past 2 trading days...

Anonymous said...

Welcome Back Buster.

Anonymous said...

I am moving to Bend from Denver, and want to buy a house.
Could I get some advice about the good areas of Bend, and the bad areas. I do not want to buy where there is a crime problem.

I would seriously appreciate any advice that you can give me.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

I do not want to buy where there is a crime problem.

Try Topeka, KS.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

I am moving to Bend from Denver, and want to buy a house.

Well, if you're hell-bent on igniting & watching your life savings burn, then you've picked the right place.

Also, be prepared to make 2/3rds less than you do now, cuz we have scenery.

You'll be fully able to appreciate our outdoor wonderland 80 days each and every year, when it's not snowing, or hailing like it's the end of the fucking World, like it did this past June.

And finally, since our City fathers decided to double down on real estate, they're firing the police & firemen, and the town will soon be broke. Make sure your shitshack is insured when methers burn that motherfucker to the ground.

Welcome to Bend!

Anonymous said...

I am moving to Bend from Denver, and want to buy a house.
Could I get some advice about the good areas of Bend, and the bad areas. I do not want to buy where there is a crime problem.

I would seriously appreciate any advice that you can give me

*****

What's the rush? If you don't know what the "good" and "bad" areas of Bend are, perhaps you should rent for a while. What's good for you, might not be good for someone else.

Anonymous said...

Having lived here for several years, I'm eager to hear about these alleged "good areas" as well. Don't be shy, folks! Where the hell are they?

Bewert said...

Galveston area on the west side. Head west to Phils Trail or south to Mt. B to play.

Oh, wait, wasn't that where they were selling meth out of the Mexican restaurant drive through last spring?

LavaBear said...

>>>I would seriously appreciate any advice that you can give me

Wrong blog Einstein. I know Buster is away but you really got this one all wrong. Try this blog:

http://bendeconomy.informe.com/forum/

Ask around for Jack Elliot. He'll help you out.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Good things come in threes?

Idiots also come in threes:
hbm, dunc and the pussy.
---

Duncan McGeary said...
Trying to derail this thread early?


=====

Thanks, dunce!

And also the Pussy From SLC!

The only thing missing is hbm and his screeching about Bushitler...

Oh, and howz Messiah Obama doing? I hear that he has extended his Honeymoon with the voters for another 100 days.

Most. Popular. Ever.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Obama will be rated as the greatest president of the 20th centrury.

Bewert said...

Easy enough not to read me, just right-click next to my name when you see it :) DO IT NOW, IF YOU WISH!

So when is Buster due back to tell us about his latest GF's? Personally, I think he goes to Thailand for a new penis implant CO2 inflator refill.

####

This is just too rich:

From USA Today, Mexico's health care lures Americans

MEXICO CITY — It sounds almost too good to be true: a health care plan with no limits, no deductibles, free medicines, tests, X-rays, eyeglasses, even dental work — all for a flat fee of $250 or less a year....

What was that someone said about people coming to the US for health care?

Interesting, coming from arguably the mainstream US paper, at this time.

####

Another thing--if you know anything about mountaintop removal coal mining, you might be interested in the fact that Verizon is sponsoring a Massey Energy festival "...to learn how environmental extremists and corporate America are both trying to destroy your jobs." Massey CEO Blankenship video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiAc5IVXI7g

Rally web site here: http://friendsofamericarally.com/

More on Massey here ("buying" a judge) http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE5573RU20090608

and here, ($20M fine for routinely polluting waterways) http://www.herald-dispatch.com/homepage/x808408773

The rich get richer as they feed the rabble more BS.

Or as was yelled at a recent town hall meeting here in wonderful right-wing land: "Sit down and shut up, because this is America!"

At least you know where they really stand :)

You can send Verizon (who recently bought out Unicel) a message here: http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/verizon_massey/

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

The Shire is Dead.

Long Live The Shire!

Just listed this week....

Anonymous said...

"Mr. Obama will be rated as the greatest president of the 20th centrury."

How will he rank for 19th "Centrury" Presidents?

Anonymous said...

Word is traveling fast on the internet, between bloggers and twitter, the choice is clear: No school for kids on September 8th due to the beginning of Socialist Indoctrination of Americas children.

Keep your kids home September 8th
2009 September 1
by DanaLoesch
Take a day of vacation. Go to the zoo. Anything that would save your offspring from what I will bluntly say is just the quasi-fellating the executive branch. That cackling over a bubbling cauldron you hear is the NEA rejoicing.

President Obama’s Address to Students Across America September 8, 2009
I wouldn’t have such a problem with the Department of Education were this presented in a non-Orwellian fashion. Oh yes, it is, as the lesson plan directs, to listen to what the president, the mayor, et al. says, to respect their "authoritah", but there is no emphasis in here on why the president and other elected officials should listen to US. The focus is solely on authority. There is no consideration given to the authority of the American people. That’s what concerns me.
There is this mindset that those in Washington are the "elite," that we should mind our Ps and Qs and blindly follow their directives. That’s not the manner of governance upon which this country was founded – it is quite the opposite; even the hobbyist Constitutional aficionado appreciates this.
So yes, keep your kids home on September 8th and teach them that the power of America rests in the hands of its people, no one else.

NOTE TO OBAMA :

LEAVE OUR KIDS ALONE !!!!

Anonymous said...

Who or what is a Shire?

Why is he dead?

Anonymous said...

Sorry, been camping the past past few nice days.
August stats:
127 SFR's sold at @ $220,000 medians.
Seems to be holding steady for now.
1026 on the market. Now things may drop off since the selling season is over. Closings may hang in for 30-60 days.
After CABC goes belly up it's just the big snow plow downhill for us.
Hear about the coming food shortage? Hope you all have more than 3 days of food in your homes.
Marge out!

Anonymous said...

The children of the far right are already at a huge disadvantage.

Who kind of moron would keep their kid out of class because the president is going to yap a little.

Anonymous said...

What, not who....

Anonymous said...

Now people are scared because the President is going to address their children? How fucking un-American is that?

Anonymous said...

Simple solution.... video tape the speech and have an assembly on the 9th for anyone who missed school on the 8th. Quizzes on what was said for anyone who sees it on the 9th.

Anonymous said...

Is it 2012 YET?

Anonymous said...

"Now people are scared because the President is going to address their children? How fucking un-American is that?"

Pelosi says dissent is American.

Anonymous said...

I just confirmed with an old friend of trudi's at the bike shop that BP did leave trudi, and him and buster are now living together in SLC!!

Take that to CACB.

hbm said...

"There is this mindset that those in Washington are the "elite," that we should mind our Ps and Qs and blindly follow their directives."

I read the pre-speech lesson plan suggestion and there is NOTHING WHATSOEVER about telling students they should "blindly follow the directives" of Obama or "the elite" or anybody else. This -- like the "death panels" and the "missing Hawaiian birth certificate" -- is simply a phantasm formed within the paranoid, delusional, insane (and getting more so every day) right-wing brain. (I use the singular form because there is no such thing as "right-wing brains" -- there is only one common brain, which the loonies all share.)

But keep it up -- the more absurd shit like this you spout, the more you marginalize yourselves. In another six months or less you'll all be walking the streets staring into space, talking to yourselves and drooling. You're one short step away from the booby hatch.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Wow, you think it's slow here.... poor BendEconomy is dead... nobody but poor BendBB for a week.

People eating up that recovery news....

Anonymous said...

Very interesting story about investors who got that asses handed to them and kept coming back for more.





Mormons Become Victims in $50 Million Scam to Sell Gold Bullion

For Kim Flanigan, 37, a Mormon who owns a furniture store with her husband in Casper, Wyoming, being part of a spiritual mission was addictive. She says she invested $10,000 in Tri Energy at the suggestion of her mother and an aunt.

“It was almost like a cult,” Flanigan says. “There were prayers at the end of most of the calls. That element was key. There was a real sense of camaraderie, a sense of community, and everything we were going to do involved humanitarian efforts to change the world. That’s why you felt like you didn’t dare disrupt it. God’s behind us, and you shouldn’t betray him.”




http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=an7Pm3hkmauw

Anonymous said...

Where is Buster? Where is Pussy?
You guys sound like a bunch of kid 5 year old kids, waiting for your daddy to come home.
If your life is so shallow that you have to wait for these 2 guys all the time, you are pathetic!

Anonymous said...

and how...

I don't even think Buster is real. He's just someone's made up personality for the sake of being outrageous. Nobody is that pathetic in real like.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

You're one short step away from the booby hatch.

Where can one find said hatch?

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

BEWARE: CACB only 10 cents from penny stock territory!

Sheila "BEAR HUG" Bair is COMING, MOSS!

Get your GOLDEN SHOWERS PARACHUTE READY!

Anonymous said...

>>Where can one find said hatch?

Dude. It's the holy grail. Good fucking luck.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Possibility that CACB is BEAR HUGGED tomorrow.

Let's all get gussied up for the FDIC! They comin' ta town!

Anonymous said...

I missed the controversy. What did Obama want his little school-aged brownshirts to do anyway?

Anonymous said...

"If your parents are spreading LIES about health care reform, email my crazy-ass czars."

Duncan McGeary said...

This sort of caught my attention.

"A cease-and-desist order is considered one of the harshest actions from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. It is rarely used."

OPB News, Ethan Lindsey

Anonymous said...

"A cease-and-desist order is considered one of the harshest actions from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. It is rarely used."

I noticed that, too. The contrast between that statement and the CEO's statements seemed jarring to me.

Anonymous said...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/health-care-activist-bites-off-the-finger-of-a-counter-demonstrator.html

These people are INSANE.

Anonymous said...

If you love your freedom...




...thank a voter.

Anonymous said...

Mormons Become Victims in $50 Million Scam to Sell Gold Bullion

For Kim Flanigan, 37, a Mormon who owns a furniture store with her husband in Casper, Wyoming, being part of a spiritual mission was addictive. She says she invested $10,000 in Tri Energy at the suggestion of her mother and an aunt...

Since when is GREED a "spiritual mission?"

Oh, I forgot. We have a whole political party devoted to just such a mission ;)

Anonymous said...

So what's with jack in the box coming to town? Don't we have enough junk food places in town as it is? Is that what people are doing with their unemployment checks can they use foodstamps at these places?

LavaBear said...

Calculated Risk looked looks into Cease and Desist

Anonymous said...

Florida Exodus: Rising Taxes Drive Out Residents
Buzz up!924 votes Send
Email IM Share
Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Twitter Yahoo! Bookmarks Print Play Video CBS4 Miami – Broward Commissioners Refusing Tax Increases By TIM PADGETT / MIAMI Tim Padgett / Miami – 2 hrs 18 mins ago
There are many things public officials probably shouldn't do during a severe recession, but no one seems to have told the leaders in Florida about them. One thing, for instance, would be giving a dozen top aides hefty raises while urging a rise in property taxes, as the mayor of Miami-Dade County recently did. Or jacking up already exorbitant hurricane-insurance premiums, as Florida's government-run property insurer just did. Or sending an army of highly paid lobbyists to push for a steep hike in electricity rates, as South Florida's public utility is doing.


And you wonder why the Sunshine State is experiencing its first net emigration of people since World War II. (See pictures: "Florida's Paradise Lost.")


A few years ago, journalists - citing the chasm between Miami's high cost of living and its low level of income - began predicting that South Florida and its perpetual population-growth machine would soon face the unthinkable: a falling head count. Now it's official. The region - Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties - lost 27,400 residents between 2008 and 2009, while Florida as a whole lost 58,000. That's not exactly a mass exodus for a state of 18 million; but it's the first net outflow in 63 years for a state that considers itself the new California. "It's difficult for the working middle class to justify living here," Mike Jones, president of the Palm Beach County Economic Council, conceded to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "As much as they may love the sunshine, as you squeeze them out, they may find it in their best interests to move."


Jones gets it, but residents are starting to question whether the rest of their leaders do. Homeowners, especially in Broward and Miami-Dade, have been falling out of their flip-flops in recent days as they open their preliminary property-tax notices to find increases of 15% or more. That's sizable in a low-income region where the median property-tax bill is already some $3,000, and it's doubly frustrating given that property values have slid by some 25% during Florida's housing bust. Residents have barely digested the recent news that their hurricane-insurance premiums, which can top $5,000 a year for most South Florida homes, will rise 10% a year for the next three years (vital, officials claim, for handling claims from the next big storm). And their public utility, Florida Power & Light (FPL), is lobbying the state for a 30% rate hike (vital, FPL execs insist, for upgrading infrastructure). "It all seems out of control to people here at the time when they can least absorb it," says Dr. Jose Valladares, president of the conservative Fair Property Tax for All in Miami-Dade. (Read about Florida's property-tax revolt.)

Anonymous said...

"Oh, I forgot. We have a whole political party devoted to just such a mission ;)"

It's twice as good as you say. We have two parties like that, in fact.

Anonymous said...

1. You can't use food stamps at Jack in the Box. Though it's cheap food; might save time and money.
2. There are no food stamps any more... it's electronic.
3. Yeah, we do have two parties devoted to that mission.
4. Do you pick these verification words from a list? Or make them up?

Anonymous said...

4. Do you pick these verification words from a list? Or make them up. Excuse me what do you mean ?

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMAo0m4E4Lc&feature=fvw

Anonymous said...

Is there someone out there who thinks everyone would have been cool with Bush address their kids in school?

Anonymous said...

But are you cool with the thin red line and that means sacrifice are you cool with that. And I can show you what that is > the sacrifice of human souls for your safety. Our brave souls who sacrificed their lives so you can have freedom what does that mean to you? O r are you a whipmish piece of shit that our young brave soldiers fight for? Tell me are you worth fighting for? Or our freedoms worth fighting for?

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBAwB5CyKKU&NR=1

Anonymous said...

Video of George Bush, addressing kids in school....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IedVRYUNWUU

.... when the twin towers were hit.

Anonymous said...

Is anyone else amazed that all these local banks around here are still in operation?

I don't understand it. I must not understand banking at all.

Didn't they all make best that just didn't pan out, or were they more careful than I suspect?

Anonymous said...

Why are you so hung up on george bush? Excuse me but our pres is obama and don't ferget it baby. He is the man the big man so what your problem bout that?

Anonymous said...

Ouch...


http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/03/banks-assets-loans-markets-equities-finance.html?partner=yahootix

Bewert said...

http://www.tonysrants.com/national/perspective-dems-slammed-george-h-w-bush-for-address-to-schools/

Bewert said...

Re: Our brave souls who sacrificed their lives so you can have freedom what does that mean to you?

####

Can you explain to me how Iraq was infringing our freedom?

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

U.S. jobless rate hits 26-year high

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The pace of U.S. job losses hit a one-year low last month but the unemployment rate jumped to a 26-year high of 9.7 percent, the government said on Friday in a report showing a slowly improving labor market.

The Labor Department said employers cut 216,000 jobs, the smallest since August 2008, and revised job losses for June and July to show 49,000 more jobs lost than previously reported.

Analysts had expected non-farm payrolls to drop 225,000 in August and the unemployment rate to rise to 9.5 percent.

"It certainly sustains perceptions that the economy gradually is swinging to recovery. The main pitfall would be continued weak income growth but that was not the case in August, so that's encouraging," said Pierre Ellis, senior economist at Decision Economics in New York.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Can you explain to me how Iraq was infringing our freedom?

Are you outta your Commie Fuckin Mind, Brucie!

Those fucking Irackkki's drive around in their Lamborghini's and Bentley's kicking dirt in our face!! I've had it up to HERE with those rich motherfuckers BURNING AND THEN EATING Amerikkkan flags!

Someone needed to come along and teach those millionaire motherfuckers a lesson!

Anonymous said...

Do you think MOSS will 'cure' CACB with salt or sugar??

I say she uses the foam left from buster&bp's anal sex, nothing like shit and ky-jelly whipped into foam, to cure an ailing bank.

What's a good christian woman in Bend to do?

...

The database also includes links to public enforcement documents with the dates the documents were issued (Cease and Desist orders, Prompt Corrective Action directives, etc.).

As an example, Millennium State Bank of Texas was seized on July 2nd, 2009 and the FDIC entered a Cease and Desist order on the 19th of May 2009 FDIC. So the bank was closed less than two months after the Cease and Desist order was issued.

Other banks lasted longer, and a C&D isn't a guarantee of failure since some are cured.

Anonymous said...

"A cease-and-desist order is considered one of the harshest actions from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. It is rarely used."

I noticed that, too. The contrast between that statement and the CEO's statements seemed jarring to me.

...

It's all about denial and lies in Bend, and CACB; MOSS is covered she's a real millionaire when you consider her stock she holds in the real company of Knife-River. The CACB was always a facade, and never the source of enrichment, soon CACB will fold and all will say 'who could have guessed?', the real show was always the $200M (MDU) created as city-of-bend debt and indirectly transferred for services rendered to team moss.

CACB gave the 'team' the legitimacy to build Bend, and create great public works projects, that fed the pig trough. MOSS will claim poverty and loss of all when CACB folds, and not ONE mother fucker anywhere will talk of MDU and her vast fortune she quietly walks away with.

CACB was always the smoke&mirrors, and MDU was always the REAL behind the scenes play, ... MOSS is now a millionaire, and BEND is now bankrupt.

WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED? BUT NO ONE WILL EVER SPEAK OF THIS!

Anonymous said...

I missed the controversy. What did Obama want his little school-aged brownshirts to do anyway?

*

Something to do with mormons, ky-jelly, and public education.

I remember when BP first came to Bend, and told us his love of the children, the OREO and BP are Siamese twins.

It shows how terrified OREO is of the masses when he has to reach out to the non-voters. :)

hbm said...

"Is there someone out there who thinks everyone would have been cool with Bush address [sic] their kids in school?"

I can't say whether EVERYONE would have been cool with it, but it wouldn't have bothered me one teeny bit.

It's a crude analysis but I think there's a grain of truth in it: The right-wingers simply can't handle the fact that a black liberal was elected president and it's driving them crazy. I mean crazier.

If Obama mentioned that he liked bacon and eggs for breakfast, the right-wing wackos would see evidence of some socialist-Nazi-communist conspiracy in it.

Bewert said...

Can't wait to watch Favre in purple again tonight!

hbm said...

"Those fucking Irackkki's drive around in their Lamborghini's and Bentley's kicking dirt in our face!! I've had it up to HERE with those rich motherfuckers BURNING AND THEN EATING Amerikkkan flags!"

I think you have the Iraqis confused with our noble freedom-loving allies the Saudis, Homer.

Anonymous said...

Hey Pubsters... My President, Barack Hussein Obama, has a message for you. He only wants you to do TWO THINGS:

1. Make sure you breathe. Breathing is important.
2. Practice good involuntary muscle control. A beating heart is a working heart.

Would you please concentrate on doing those two things? Our President will appreciate it.

Friday afternoons will get interesting. If you see some folks in suits that you don't recognize, parked outside CACB branches, it may be That Time. Don't worry about your deposits - though, if you have more than $250K, investigate CDARS; they're a way to spread coverage to more funds.

Anonymous said...

hbm said...
I can't say whether EVERYONE would have been cool with it, but it wouldn't have bothered me one teeny bit.


Bullshit, Herr Bowel Movement, bullshit.

Anonymous said...

CDARS does not pay as high an interest rate, as just shopping for banks, on your own.
If you have over $250Kin cash, you should make the time to shop around.

Duncan McGeary said...

"If you have over $250Kin cash, you should make the time to shop around."

I'll be sure to remember that.

Anonymous said...

Check out the Bend Economy Bulletin Board, under Real Estate.
Look at the "recent price
changes "on property for sale.

Some are dropping by $100,000.

There are actually ones in the
price range affordable to anyone in Bend.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Nope.

Just stating the obvious.

But I have no fear, either you, the pussy or hbm will derail this thread soon enuf. Soon enough!
=========

Dunc, you failed me.

The Pussy & hbm (like moths to the light) could not possibly stay on Bend topics, but instead deviated the discourse to Favre, Bush, Iraq, more Bush, Mexican health care, more Bush vs Obama on education, etc.

But not you, dunc, you rant on re: Central Oregon stuff. What gives? You got the Swine flu?

hbm said...

hbm said...
I can't say whether EVERYONE would have been cool with it, but it wouldn't have bothered me one teeny bit.

Bullshit, Herr Bowel Movement, bullshit.

***

Actually Chimpy DID address the nation's school children (as did Ronald Reagan before him) urging them to stay in school and work hard, as Obama plans to do. (Real hard-core socialist stuff, eh?) There may have been a few Democrats who objected but I didn't. In fact I wasn't even aware it happened until just now when I checked it out.

BTW "Herr Bowel Movement" is very witty -- for a 6-year-old. That's pretty much the mental level Republicans operate on, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

"There are actually ones in the
price range affordable to anyone in Bend."

Assuming that no one in Bend has lost their job.

hbm said...

Right-winger hoping for another terrorist attack to save America:

"The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States." -- former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer, on Glenn Beck.

More: http://www.newshounds.us/2009/07/01/becks_guest_longs_for_a_major_terrorist_attack_to_save_america.php

Gotta love these right-wingers -- always putting country first.

If OBL does detonate a "major weapon," I just hope the Fox News headquarters is Ground Zero.

Anonymous said...

"There may have been a few Democrats who objected but I didn't. In fact I wasn't even aware it happened until just now when I checked it out."

I wasn't aware of it either until I checked. And, of course, checking reveals that the libs went nuts.

Anonymous said...

Hmm. I expected the White House to get behind Van Jones, but the timing must be wrong to support a nut job.

Duncan McGeary said...

"Dunc, you failed me."


*******


"Oh, it is only I, the tiniest Billy Goat Gruff"

Ballzee said...

Did you see THE ACTUAL BOTC CEASE-AND-DESIST ORDER? Pretty harsh!

Duncan McGeary said...

Someone(s) trying awfully hard to prop up the BOTC price, bidding it up in the last hour today by 7% or so...

Anonymous said...

We made Calculated risk today:
Problem Bank List (Unofficial) Sep 4, 2009
by CalculatedRisk on 9/04/2009 01:45:00 PM
This is an unofficial list of Problem Banks.

The list is compiled from regulator press releases or from public news sources (see Enforcement Action Type link for source). The FDIC data is released monthly with a delay, and the Fed and OTC data is more timely. The OCC data is a little lagged. Credit: surferdude808.

Changes and comments from surferdude808:

During the week, 12 institutions with aggregate assets of $17.7 billion were added to the Unofficial Problem Bank List.

The list stands at 421 institutions with assets of $267.8 billion.

Largest among the additions is Capmark Bank, a Utah-based industrial loan company with assets of $11.1 billion. Should the parent, Capmark Financial Group, not find a buyer this could be another costly failure. Other notable additions include the $2.4 billion Bank of the Cascades, Bend, Oregon; the $1.9 billion Citizens First Savings Bank, Port Huron, Michigan; and two bankers’ banks – Midwest Independent Bank in Missouri and Nebraska Bankers’ Bank.

All three deletions from the list were because of failure including Affinity Bank, Mainstreet Bank, and Bradford Bank. Lastly, the OTS issued a Prompt Corrective Action order against Vantus Bank, Sioux City, Iowa, which was already operating under a Cease & Desist order.
More can be seen at Culculatedrisk.com

Bewert said...

RE: Those fucking Irackkki's drive around in their Lamborghini's and Bentley's kicking dirt in our face!! I've had it up to HERE with those rich motherfuckers BURNING AND THEN EATING Amerikkkan flags!

####

That's a good rant. Especially the EATING part :)

Bewert said...

Blogger Duncan McGeary said...

"If you have over $250Kin cash, you should make the time to shop around."

I'll be sure to remember that

####

Now that's funny.

How many people in Bend have over $250K sitting in the bank?

13?

Hell, you think these folks over in SLC have that much? Most are up to their eyeballs in debt.

Bewert said...

Re: Largest among the additions is Capmark Bank, a Utah-based industrial loan company with assets of $11.1 billion.

####

That's interesting. The local "industrial" banks are something I haven't researched enough to understand yet, although they are a significant part of the economy here.

Duncan McGeary said...

The BBC story is up. Google BBC news and Bend, Oregon.

Pretty standard, really.

Duncan McGeary said...

Choice quote:

"Its people are gracious, their gorgeous surroundings imbuing them with a certain American languidness."

Duncan McGeary said...

I feel languidness overcoming me. No worries, I got myself the big refrigerator box as my domicile; my neighbor is stuck with the T.V. box....

tim said...

I swear I wasn't languid until I got here.

Anonymous said...

I still have my rock hard youth... I expect I won't be languid until I am hbm's age.

But then, it will be all over. My unit will be as languid as a soggy noodle, just as hbm's is.

Anonymous said...

Democracy is dead ... lobbyists rule America
16-point manifesto for the new 'Lobbyist Nation of America'
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Democracy dead? Lobbyists ruling America? Lobbyists the new "Unseen Hand" of capitalism? Sadly yes.

And here's why: Ask any neuroeconomist, behavioral-finance quant, investment psychologist or other practitioner of the mysterious "science of irrationality" and they'll tell you that Americans have two self-sabotaging mental biases that killed democracy from within: "Denial" and "Magical Thinking" make us easy targets. Our brains are being manipulated by clandestine forces beyond our control. We can't see them or resist.

The Obama White House and the Congressional Budget Office announced that the deficit will increase to $9 trillion over the next decade, $2 trillion more than predicted earlier this year. Watch the Journal Editorial Report on FOX News on Saturdays at 2 and 11 p.m. EDT.

Yet we refuse to believe in this new Orwellian America. We prefer the world of magic, myth and illusion.

Yes, folks, democracy is dead. Oh, the illusion will be kept alive in our history books, in the rhetoric of politicians, in the manipulated minds of America's 95 million Main Street investors. The propaganda machine works. Like a child's fairy tale, democracy has been deeply imbedded in our brains for decades; we prefer believing old, familiar stories. They comfort us, even when no longer true. The real democracy, what so many fought and died for since 1776, is dead.

Lobbyists now run America, own America, rule America. Forget the 537 politicians you thought we elected to the White House, Senate and Congress to run America for us. No, they're mere puppets, pawns for the "Happy Conspiracy," an oligopoly, plutocracy, cabal, monopoly all-in-one -- a private club of America's richest few on Wall Street, in Washington and in Corporate America.

Voters and elections are irrelevant. Lobbyists decide what's in the best interests of this elite club. The usual suspects? Try the Forbes 400.

Last year Michael Barone wrote a "Defense of Lobbyists" in U.S. News & World Report: "Lobbying is as American as apple pie, going back to the colonies." How naïve, how in denial.

He obviously missed reading Bob Kaiser's brilliant 25-part series in the Washington Post a couple years earlier, on "how lobbying became Washington's biggest business." Turns out that modern lobbying actually began in the mid-1970s with the innovative "earmarked appropriations, federal funds directed by Congress to private institutions when no federal agency had proposed spending the money."

Kaiser expanded the series to: "So Damn Much Money: The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government." In just three decades, Washington has earmarked hundreds of billions thanks to lobbyists peddling influence bribes to buy Washington votes.

After all, the cost of a Senate race has exploded from $437,000 to $7.9 million. So lobbyists shovel millions to friendly senators, like Connecticut Democrat Christopher Dodd and Alabama Republican Richard Shelby.

the rest is here

Anonymous said...

OK doom and gloomers -- glass is half fullers ... here's a pretty funny parody of Oregon's different regions. Trust me, you'll like it:

http://dadintheheadlights.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/oregon-special-edition-barbies/

[or equivalently]

http://tinyurl.com/mum3fb

Anonymous said...

the FED banks are the main contract sellers at COMEX when they want to control the pm's prices. Specially jpmorgan and hsbc. Japan moved part of their reserves from england recently that probably caused some warning signs. 2000 bars, I was expecting several hundreds of thousands bars according to the amount of paper contracts traded at COMEX
Hey you know what? JPMorgan is fighting with others to bring the dollar up and it is not working and the markets are going down, and when they trash the dollar to prompt the market it is not working either since last two weeks. They are going to have to crash this markets so they can buy back those contracts they sold up there at lower prices because if people start doing like japan did and start asking for delivery the whole scam is gong to explore and a lot of head going to get cut.
__________________

Anonymous said...

Well this is all i have to say is i grew up in eastern or and you know what, i have been programed since day one to be conservative. And now it is paying off big time. just saw the bbc I remember growing up as a kid all the jobs in milton-freewater were farm or service related and the only way you got a job there was the good old boy network. and it is still that way now

Anonymous said...

SEC was in BED with MADE-OFF all along, .. who would have guessed???

....

Madoff Scam Touched Family of SEC Official Whose Unit Got Tip
Bloomberg - David Scheer, Joshua Gallu - ‎7 hours ago‎
Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Family members of a US Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement official, whose unit got a tip in 2005 that Bernard Madoff may be running a Ponzi scheme, entrusted $2 million to the scam, ...

Anonymous said...

Hell, you think these folks over in SLC have that much? Most are up to their eyeballs in debt.

>>>>>

Yes, but in SLC we have love.

We have our wives and boyfriends.

We have our children ( old enough to bleed, old enough to breed ).

Yes, Bend has nothing, and SLC has everything.

Anonymous said...

How many people in Bend have over $250K? A lot more than you think.
We were on the coast recently, and stopped in an open house, where the realtor is selling expensive, ocean front homes. I asked him,"Who buys these things?"
Answer: " Farmers/ranchers from eastern Oregon and Washington, to escape hot summers and cold winter.
They may drive pick up trucks, and have S--- on their boots, but they have high net worths"

Anonymous said...

Economic crash in Oregon boomtown

By Adam Brookes
BBC News, Bend, Oregon
...

But no-one expects the housing market ever to revert to its previous, ferocious levels of activity. And many will tell you they have no desire for it to do so, that Bend has learned a lesson about bubbles.

***

From the BBC article, .. .BULL FUCKING SHIT

BEND has NOT learned, already COVA, & CORA are scheming BUBBLE-N for 2016, ... this town and the people that run it only know whoring real-estate, what a load of shit.

Learned its lesson, who the fuck fed this guy this shit??

Anonymous said...

"How many people in Bend have over $250K? A lot more than you think."

How many of those are dumb enough to buy Bend Real Estate now?

Bewert said...

http://tinyurl.com/kmhlrs

"The Kid From Brooklyn on Speaking Fucking English!"

This guy kills me.

hbm said...

"We were on the coast recently, and stopped in an open house, where the realtor is selling expensive, ocean front homes. I asked him,"Who buys these things?"
Answer: " Farmers/ranchers from eastern Oregon and Washington, to escape hot summers and cold winter.
They may drive pick up trucks, and have S--- on their boots, but they have high net worths"

Thanks for that info. I've always wondered who would be dumb enough to spend half a million dollars on a place at the Oregon coast. I wouldn't want one if somebody gave it to me.

hbm said...

Anon 7:47: Absolutely spot on, chap. Bend ain't learned shit. Our "community leaders" are just waiting for the next bubble to inflate.

Anonymous said...

http://peopleofwalmart.com

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

These companies own Unkki Sam HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS. They aren't just worth ZERO, they are in the red TENS OF BILLIONS.

I think I meant "owe".... not "own".

Bewert said...

Buster?

http://tinyurl.com/nfc55b

Anonymous said...

We need a new website for everyone who supports the president without question-

Obamabots.com

Anonymous said...

Now that Obama has screwed up so badly and has been proven to be mortal, I don't think he has the kind of starry-eyed supporters he had this spring.

In the long run, probably better for him to have stumbled so early, as Clinton did. Obama just needs to triangulate and be another comeback kid. There's a model to follow.

Anonymous said...

simple question what the hell does HBM stand for? Hate to burst your melonoma? I know you guys are one in the same. Or home betromolious moma. How about this home be man moma

Anonymous said...

hibiscus bulimic melonhead at least being anonymous is a hell of a lot smarter

Anonymous said...

hibiscus bulimic melonhead

you really are stupid and don't let anyone tell you you're not...

Anonymous said...

Bend is in the top 10 for

unemployment, and
homeless people.

This is out of the entire United States.

Who says we can't compete. Bet Aspen isn't even close. So there!